University of Minnesota head football coach Jerry Kill speaks about retiring athletic director Joe Maturi before the start of a press conference where Kaler announced Maturi's retirement at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn., on Thursday, February 2, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

In response to Jerry Kill's latest seizure, Gophers athletics director Norwood Teague said Monday, Nov. 26, that he and his football coach need to do a better job of managing Kill's seizure disorder.

Teague said he is planning to reduce some of Kill's responsibilities as a head coach.

Kill, who was back to work Monday, suffered a seizure at halftime and missed the second half of Saturday's 26-10 loss to Michigan State.

Teague was not specific about how Kill's job would be reduced to help him deal with his condition, epilepsy.

"The way that I look at it is that this is just an evolving medical issue for him -- one in which he is going to continue to pursue opinions on how to manage it," Teague told the Pioneer Press. "I think there's certainly a lot of hope that the management part will get a lot better as time goes on. You have to find a way to manage it from a medicine standpoint and just a lifestyle standpoint. He's going to have time in the offseason to do that. I'm confident we're going to make some big-time progress.

"I'm definitely concerned about (Kill's) health and him getting better. Is there turmoil on the team because of this? Absolutely not. Is there doubt now about him moving forward? Absolutely not. It's just a matter, for me, about him looking deeper into it. One thing about Jerry, he likes to tackle everything himself. We have to do a better job here of managing around him. As an AD, our relationship is great. But I have to do a better job of helping him.

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I can take some things off his plate that other coaches can do. But Jerry is a fighter. He doesn't want to let things go."

Kill rested in the coaches' locker room after the Michigan State game and left TCF Bank Stadium with his wife, Rebecca. He went home without a trip to the hospital.

Kill was taken to the hospital after suffering his previous two seizures during Gophers games. The first was a grand mal seizure during the final minutes of a loss to New Mexico State on Sept. 10, 2011. The most recent was a mild seizure in the locker room after a 21-13 homecoming loss to Northwestern on Oct. 13.

Teague said he did not know what caused Saturday's seizure or any previous ones. Kill, who has been in remission from cancer since having surgery at Southern Illinois in 2005, has never missed a game because of his seizures. But he's suffered from the disease since 1992.

"There's so much medical opinion about these things. So it's very hard to pinpoint anything," Teague said. "I wasn't here last year, so I don't know what he did. I know that he's very eager to look deeper (into his condition) in the offseason. As far as what's going on right now, I think there needs to be some re-examining (of) where he is. And I know he wants to do that."

Teague said he hasn't gotten "an onslaught" of negative feedback, but he did get emails and calls from fans concerned about Kill's latest seizure.

Big Ten Network analyst and former Northwestern player Chris Martin said Kill's health will be an ongoing topic for recruits and fans, and the way to change the focus is to build the program into a winner.

"Winning takes away a lot of the other crap," Martin said. "At the end of the day, if Jerry is doing that, then that's what's going to weigh the most. Now are some schools going to recruit against him and use that? Absolutely. You're kidding yourself if you don't think they are. That's just how insidious recruiting battles can be."

But there's one top recruit Kill doesn't have to worry about.

Marian Central Catholic quarterback Chris Streveler, who was named first-team all-state in Illinois, said Wisconsin and Pittsburgh were among the schools trying to get him to renege on his commitment to Kill. But even after Kill's most recent seizure, Streveler isn't interested in taking their calls.

"I hope coach is doing well; it's only concerning in that matter," Streveler said Monday. "It's not concerning in the matter where I would be worried about (the program) and decommit or anything like that. When I've been up there on my visits, he's brought (his seizure disorder) up. He's been very open about it. I really respect that about him. It is what it is. And it's just something that happens."